Rewinged
by szechuan.sauce
Summary: Max was supposed to save the world. Whoops. The world ended, her soulmate Fang died, and she faced a life of living off of rats underground. Basically, she failed. So she wished for a re-do. And now this time, she's got a gun in her pocket, a new Voice in her head, and a mission to learn how to make proper nachos. And to save the world. (Technically post-MRF)
1. I Started All Over Again

_So, I thought about this when I was studying for my winter finals and instead of studying, I wrote this because I am irresponsible as $ &%. I think it's pretty cool. It definitely allows me to explore things that weren't touched upon in the books. It allows me to avoid plot points that I hated, and it allows me to do whatever the hell I want, which is exactly what I've always dreamed about. _

* * *

I jolted upright in bed, gasping, my hand over my heart -no, actually, over my abdomen. I couldn't feel anything. No tiny mass of flesh that would grow up to be a human person.

I wasn't pregnant.

 _Uh, what?_

I looked around to find that I was in a cozy bed -alone, for once. Okay... this looked familiar. I also found that I was wearing an old, distinctly familiar nightgown. Since when did I wear nightgowns? Especially if I wasn't pregnant? And why did this room look so familiar? I looked over at the nightstand to my right and stifled a scream when I saw a very familiar Mickey Mouse alarm clock.

This was the letter E house.

Despite the chilliness, I forced myself out of the cozy bed and nearly tripped over a basket of laundry at my feet. I scoffed in disbelief as I picked up a pair of clean sweats. I distinctly remembered yelling at Nudge to carry her own weight and do chores around the place, but that had been over two years ago.

 _Or had it?_

Closing my eyes, I tried to recall exactly what had happened before I "woke up." I had been in the underground bunker-room-thing with Dylan. My world had crashed around my ears when I heard of Fang's death. I had wished to start over because I couldn't live without my soul mate.

And it looked like the world had granted me my wish.

I put on the sweats that were technically two years old -but still clean -and opened the door to my room, wincing as it creaked slightly. I didn't want to wake up any of the Flock. I didn't think I could face them just yet. I wasn't ready.

The kitchen was my only option. As I descended the stairs, I looked out the hall windows, at the mountains casting shadows as the beautiful sunrise spread its colors across the sky or some other poetic crap like that. It was almost peaceful -wait a second.

I froze in my tracks as I realized that in the original timeline, we had been attacked by Erasers while eating breakfast. Who was I to say that it wouldn't happen again? And knowing what I did, I couldn't in good conscience put the Flock in that kind of danger. I would have to evacuate them somehow, maybe by convincing them to all go on a field trip to Walmart. And I would have to keep a close eye on Angel, to make sure she didn't get kidnapped again -

 _Shit_ , Angel! Besides her probability of being kidnapped by the Erasers and getting sent to the School, which was way too high for my liking, I had completely forgotten that _she could read minds_. She would be able to read my thoughts and realize what was happening in a heartbeat! She would completely misunderstand, think that I was a clone of the real Max or something, and I'd be out of the Flock before you could say _Maya_. I clearly remembered Angel's power-crazed actions that had kicked me out of the Flock once. Despite her cuteness, I was going to have to protect her _and_ be wary of her at the same time. I bit my nails in worry. It wasn't really a habit of mine, and I hoped it wouldn't become one.

I was going to have to shield my thoughts from Angel somehow. Distraught, I opened a cupboard door before remembering that there was no food because I still couldn't cook. And I wasn't about to wake Iggy up, despite the fact that my stomach was rumbling like heck -but then again, I hadn't really eaten since... hmm.

"Mornin' Max," a voice came behind me, and I jumped. I turned around and grinned slightly when I saw a sleep-ridden, two-years-younger Gazzy rubbing his eyes. As he sank into a seat at the dining table, I remembered to stay upwind. He didn't look a day over... eight, right? Right.

"Morning, Gazzy," I said as I ruffled his hair.

"What's for breakfast?" he asked me, and my heart swelled despite the fact that I knew we were all going to die if we stayed in this house for too long.

"I have no idea," I said, since I couldn't be bothered to think about that. "But do you want to pour juice?"

He nodded, yawning. Satisfied that I had occupied him for the time being, I looked up to see Iggy slinking into the kitchen and throwing himself face-first onto the old couch. He _never_ missed, did he? I walked over to him.

"Hey, Ig," I said loudly, shaking his foot. "Get the heck up."

"Bite me," he mumbled, shoving a couch pillow over his head to block me out. I groaned.

"Why do you guys even bother getting out of bed if you're so tired you fall asleep immediately? That defeats the purpose of getting up!" Tired of being a loving, caring mother already, I snatched the orange juice carton away from Gazzy, who was so tired he was completely missing the glasses and instead pouring juice all over the kitchen countertops and floor.

"Birds' instincts," said a deep voice behind me, and I turned around to see... Oh, dear god, I was _not_ ready for this. Fang was leaning against the non-juice-splattered counter, grinning easily at me. Oh, his face, it was completely unblemished, with no permanent scars or lacerations. For a moment I wanted nothing more than to wrap my arms around him, to caress his face, to feel his lips on mine -but then I remembered that in this timeline, we weren't about to father a child together yet, we weren't soulmates yet, and if I so much as tried to hold his hand out of line, I had no doubt that he'd judo throw me. So I bit back any urges. And I bit my nails. "The early bird catches the worm, you heard of that?"

"I don't want worms. I want eggs. Or something," Gazzy yawned, and I handed him a glass of cold water.

"This'll wake you up," I said distractedly, trying not to look at Fang because I knew I'd turn red if I did, and then that would turn into a whole thing, and that really wasn't the issue at hand right now.

Iggy gave a loud grunt and staggered upright. " _I'll_ make eggs," he announced, and Gazzy clapped his hands, blonde hair sopping with ice-cold water.

"Okay. Okay," I paced around the counter, ignoring Fang's stare. "Fang, you go get Nudge and Angel. I'll stay here and make sure they don't blow anything up."

Fang frowned. "You okay?"

"I'm fine!" I snapped. "Just get out of here!"

He shrugged and left to go wake up the girls, and I exhaled, putting my hands on the counter. Okay, Angel would be here any minute, and I had to somehow block my thoughts from that little she-devil or else crap would go down. _Think, Max, think_...I bit my nails as I drew a blank.

Too late. I paled as I I heard footsteps realized Fang was coming downstairs with the girls already. Crap, crap, _crap_.

I hastily grabbed a bunch of cutlery and started setting the table as Nudge flounced into the room, looking distinctly disheveled and annoyed. "Fang woke me up in the _worst_ way possible. Who grabs someone's shoulder and shakes them?" She looked down at her place setting and frowned. "Why do I have a pair of scissors instead of a fork?"

"Sorry," I muttered, taking the scissors back. Actually, they could be useful. I stowed them in my back pocket.

Fang appeared a few moments later, inhaling the smell of scrambled eggs. " _Yes_... Iggy, I could kiss you."

"I really wish you wouldn't," Iggy said, now doling food onto everyone's plate. "We're both straight, right? Or at least, I'm assuming we're both straight, given that neither one of us has any experience with girls."

I turned pink as Fang snorted. "Not really something I'm worried about, Ig,"

"Where's Angel?" I blurted, wanting to change the uncomfortable conversation.

"I'm right here, Max," a sweet little voice came from next to me, and I sighed in relief when I saw my little baby. I pulled out the chair next to me. "Here you go. Have food," I said, and I shoved a mountain of eggs onto Angel's plate.

"Thanks, Max," Angel said sweetly, and I waited with bated breath for something, anything to happen.

But nothing did. Angel and everyone else continued eating merrily, and Gazzy ate _too_ merrily -he let rip another one of his... unfortunate occurrences. Fortunately, I had anticipated this and had managed to get out of the blast radius before the explosion.

"Gas... mask!" Iggy gasped, pretending to choke.

"I'm done, thanks," Fang said, getting up and putting his plate in the sink. I frowned at them.

"You guys have eaten meals with Gazzy for what -four years now? Shouldn't you be used to his farts by now? And even if you weren't, that's no excuse to throw away half a plate of scrambled eggs, Fang," I gave him my best chastising glance, determinedly not turning pink or red or any other undesirable color.

"Sorry," Gazzy said automatically and kept eating.

Now was the time. I clapped my hands together. "Angel," I said, and she looked at me. "You probably want to go pick strawberries, right?"

She looked mildly surprised. "Yeah. They're ripe now. How did you-"

"Well, forget it. We're not doing that. We're going to, erm, Walmart instead."

She looked at me curiously. "Why?"

"Yeah, especially after Gazzy's thing, I think we could all use some _fresh_ air," Nudge remarked.

It was getting harder to keep my composure. I lifted my hand up to bite my nails before realizing that I had already gnawed them to stubs. Not good. I was going to have to find a stress ball or something. "Well, we need supplies." I barked. "Don't argue with me -just pack a change of clothes and anything else you might need. Gaz, Ig, that means bombs."

"Why would we need a change of clothes and bombs to go to Walmart?" Gazzy asked timidly, and I rounded on him.

"Don't argue with me! We don't have a lot of time; the Erase -I mean, Walmart's going to close before we get there!"

One by one, I shooed them out of the kitchen and to their respective rooms while I thought about what might be handy to have. Knives, definitely. I grabbed a bag and started shoving all the kitchen knives, even the ones with dried-up egg on them, into the rucksack. What next? Food. We'd pick up some food at Walmart.

 _Okay, do you actually intend on going to Walmart?_

I froze again. Going to Walmart would mean _not_ getting ambushed by the Erasers, which would mean that Angel would _not_ get kidnapped, which would mean that Fang, Nudge, and I would _not_ go on a mission to save her, which basically would mean that all the events that had happened in the past... just wouldn't happen. I mean, think about it logically. We might be able to avoid the Erasers this time, but that would mean entering into a whole new timeline wherein I would have no idea what would happen. What if they found us at Walmart? What if they captured all of us since we didn't have the home field advantage then? What if one of the Flock _died_ because of my rash decision to avoid short-term conflicts, not even considering the long-term effects?

"I asked you this before, and I'll ask it until I get an answer," Fang's voice at me ear made me jump. I guess I still wasn't used to him sneaking up on me... I guess I never got used to that, actually. I turned to find his face mere inches from mine, and I gulped slightly. "Are you okay?"

"You talk a lot," was all I said. "Everyone always branded you as the guy who never talks, but so far today, you've talked more than Nudge." I wiped my nose with the back of my sleeve. "So I guess the real question is, are _you_ okay?"

Fang frowned, which wasn't good -I didn't want him getting crows' feet so early in life. "What are you not telling me?" he asked quietly.

I stared at him for a moment. This was _Fang_. He was my brother, my right-hand man, my best friend. I was supposed to be able to tell him everything. But I couldn't. Because he'd never believe me. My heart ached as I thought about it. "Just grab as many weapons as you can. Stay close to Angel. Don't think -just act."

The rest of the Flock had gathered around, and I clapped my hands. "Guys. Don't be alarmed, but in a few moments, we're going to be ambushed by Erasers. But no one has to freak out, get kidnapped, or even get hurt if you follow my plan. Nudge, guard yourself. Don't let them grab you. You're small -use that to your advantage. Climb a tree or something. Stay out of harm's way. Gazzy, same goes for you. You got the bombs?"

Gazzy nodded mutely, looking smaller and more confused than ever as he held up a black duffel bag.

"Okay. Good. Iggy, no offense, but even though you're a great fighter, you're blind, and you're going to sit this one out."

"But -"

"Don't protest!" I hissed. "Take Angel and start flying away from here. I don't care where you go or how far. We'll find each other afterwards. Angel, you have to leave because you're the youngest. Just make sure you don't get spotted or else you _will_ die." I paused, shuddering at how merciless the Erasers had been. "What are you still doing here?! _Go_!"

Angel threw her arms around me and I hugged her for a brief second before sending her out the back window with Iggy. I then turned to the remaining Flock members, who were staring at me with varied degrees of shock, surprise, and disbelief.

"Gazzy, you and Nudge are going to have to have impeccable aim. Aim for _them_ , not _us_." I gestured to myself and Fang. "Get out there, pick a good tree, and get ready. Don't let yourselves be seen. Again, they _will_ kill you."

Pale and frightened, Gazzy led Nudge out of the door, still clutching the bag of bombs. I felt bad for scaring them -they were, after all, children -but it was the only way they would survive. Beside me, Fang cleared his throat.

"What are _we_ doing?"

"We're going to be on the ground fighting these things," I said slowly. "We're the best fighters. But we're going to be outnumbered."

"So... how do you propose we go about fighting them?" Fang asked, and I was strongly reminded of why he was such a great right-hand man. He was calm, even in the face of imminent danger, even when I was suggesting crazy things. _He trusts me_.

But now was _not_ the time to get emotional. I opened a drawer in the kitchen and pulled out two Glocks. Fang's eyes widened fractionally -a sign that he was completely thrown off. "Where'd you -"

"Haven't you ever wondered how Jeb got us out of the School?" I asked him. "He had no special mutant powers. All he had was a gun. My instincts tell me that the Erasers won't have any guns with them, so it doesn't make sense to fight them hand-to-hand when we can just..."

"Are you planning on killing them?" Fang asked, his voice hushed, and I realized that even though he was still my right-hand man, he was so much more innocent than I was. Or, at least, as innocent as you could get when you were a mutant bird kid living a vigilante life. He hadn't experienced... anything, really, and his character-defining moments were yet to come. So I took it in stride.

I tucked the Glock into my belt and held the other one out to Fang. "I'm doing whatever it takes to protect my family," I told him firmly. "You with me?"

"I'm always with you." Fang said after a pause, taking the gun from me. I smiled.

"Only use it as a last resort."

Charged with determination, I ran out into the strawberry fields, blinking in the bright sunlight, as the first wave of helicopters approached from the distance. I pointed them out to Fang, and he nodded, his face set.

No one would get kidnapped, and no one would get hurt. Not if I could help it.

I had been given a second chance by some higher power. Some almighty being had heeded my request to turn back time, back in that underground death chamber. I wasn't going to waste it. This time, I would save everyone. I would get it going with Fang way sooner. I would hook Ella and Iggy up, since their mutual attraction was obvious. I would learn how to bake chocolate chip cookies. I would see to it that Fang never left. I would make less enemies and more friends by maybe not being so hostile.

This time, I would actually save the world.

* * *

 _So... as far as the romance goes, Fang isn't really into that yet, because he hasn't realized how much Max means to him yet, because there hasn't been a life-or-death situation yet. And poor Max has to deal with having a soul mate one moment to having to start their relationship over from the beginning in the next moment. Do you think she'll have enough patience to restart her romance with Fang? Or do you think she'll go for a little more Dylan this time? Or even someone else?_

 _Review your opinions!_


	2. Diplomatic Negotiations: Part One

_Thanks to all the people who reviewed the last chapter! You know who you are, so I won't bother listing names. My mind exploded yesterday and I wrote, like 10,000 words, so it's safe to say I'm hella excited about this. Why didn't I think of writing this earlier? I don't know. Okay. Whatever. Moving on._

 _Side note from the last chapter: So this is all from Max's point of view, and she's not the most rational character at the best of times. In fact, she's downright horrible sometimes at making decisions. Like, are you_ stoned _? Hello? Because of her inherent nature (is that redundant? idc), she's still going to get the Flock into some less-than-desirable situations. Also, I don't expect her to remember everything about their past adventures, so she's bound to forget some stuff, too. Don't think that making Max relive her life makes her smarter or stronger or something. She's still the same person she's always been._

 _ _I don't know whether to call this a series rewrite or not._ _I labeled it as a parody, and you'll understand what I'm talking about after this chapter.__

 _NICE SEGUE, EH?_

* * *

I felt a low growl rise in my throat as I witnessed the first huge, hulking, wolf-like mutants emerge from the chopper. These weren't Flyboys, or M-Geeks, or any other mutant-metal hybrid that would give even grown men nightmares. These were the real deal -clumsy, feral, stupidly strong Erasers.

I watched, horror-struck, as the Eraser-filled helicopter landed right on top of Angel's carefully-planted strawberry fields, squishing thousands of berries into jam before they even had a chance to ripe.

That was the real problem. I knew how cranky Nudge could get if she didn't have jam with her toast.

And what's more, there were way too many Erasers, as many as six or seven, for Fang and I to kill; even if we did happen to have our guns. I knew for a fact that Fang did not have superior marksmanship like mine because he had never used a gun... come to think of it, neither had I, really. It was a serious oversight on my part. I resolved to take the Flock to the nearest gun store and teach them the basics of shooting as soon as possible. Because how _stupid_ was it that we had to resort to physical contact with the Erasers, who clearly had the advantage in that manner? The School had given us brains. It was up to me to make the rest of the Flock use them.

So, while Fang was busy staring at the Erasers, bloodlust in his eyes (either that or he hadn't gone to the bathroom in a few days, in which case he was probably gearing up to pull a Gasman), I quickly unloaded his gun.

And I applauded myself on the back when I saw which Eraser was getting out of the helicopter first.

I stood up and smiled brightly, ignoring Fang's painful pummels to my legs. Clearing my throat, I beamed as the Erasers turned their ugly heads to look at me. I had an idea, and if I coud pull this off, then we would all be able to escape without dying. And we would also maybe be able to avoid certain nasty confrontations later (like on a certain beach in Manhattan...).

"Ari!" I said brightly, smiling through the pain that Fang was causing me -was that boy _biting_ my leg? Well, we didn't call him _Fang_ for nothing, did we? "You brought some friends!"

The once adorable seven-year-old's genetically modified fangs appeared as he bared his teeth in a perplexed scowl. "Max."

"You look different. Fang, why does he look different?"

Fang mouthed wordlessly at me, disbelief etched all over his face. Honestly, if the situation wasn't so dire, I might have laughed at how wide his eyes were. He clearly thought I was headed straight to Loonyville. I thanked myself for unloading his gun, because I was pretty sure he was only a few seconds away from shooting me.

"I was thinking a new haircut," I said conversationally. "Buzz cut, maybe?"

Grinding his teeth, after the longest of moments, Fang gave a brief nod and I exhaled in relief. I knew he wouldn't forsake me.

"Max," Ari growled again. "Miss me?"

"I really did, Ari," I said sincerely, walking from behind the bush. "In fact, I was just talking to Fang about how I missed your daily puns when we were all back in the School together. Did you hear about the guy who got hit in the head with a can of soda?" I shot at the Eraser next to Ari. How interesting it was that we had managed to be on the run from these guys for all of our lives, and yet we didn't know any of their names? I was going to change that.

He looked so startled that he forgot to look menacing. "Uh... did he get hurt?"

I grinned. Well, the Erasers weren't known for being too bright. "Nope. He was lucky it was a _soft drink_ ," I said, grinning, waiting for a reaction.

The Eraser I had just relayed the joke to chuckled softly but cowered under the glare that Ari was giving him. Hmm... so Ari was the leader of the Erasers or something? How did their dynamic work? I was genuinely interested. "Stop laughing, Jefferson!" Ari hissed, and I made a mental note. _Jefferson: the Eraser with long hair and a tiny brain._ Ari turned back to me. "Max. Surprised to see me?"

I shrugged. "Well, _pleasantly_ surprised. I mean, I didn't expect that you would come today, but I knew you'd come eventually. You see, you're angry, Ari. You're angry because you think that Jeb never paid any attention to you when you were a child because he was spending all his time with his prized experiments. Is that why you became an Eraser? To prove to your dad that you, too, were capable of being _special_?"

Clearly, Ari hadn't precedented that I would know any of this. He blinked rather foolishly, looking like a fish out of water. Or, to be more exact, a wolf out of the woods. "Well..."

"And I suppose you're here to kidnap all of us and take us back to the School. But you've clearly brought backup because you've prepared for the inevitable fight that will arise if you try to take away any of my Flock. You're probably going to target Angel, since she's the youngest and you think she can't fight as well as the rest of us. Well, that's ageist, Ari, and honestly, I don't appreciate it. Plus, how much of a prat are you going to look like, walking into the School with a six-year-old girl as your only trophy from this epic fight?"

Ari faltered. "So... what do you suggest?"

I sighed. "Frankly, I'd target Fang here, since he's a biter. He'd probably fit right in with you guys -how do you think he earned that name? He's also an incredibly good fighter, so you won't look so stupid to the other Erasers and whitecoats if you manage to bring him in."

Fang shoved his middle finger into my face and I patiently removed it from my line of vision. Ari seemed to be considering my proposal. "Well..." he said again. "That _does_ seem like a good plan..."

"I know. I come up with great plans," I said, beaming at Ari, who stared confusedly back at me. "Okay, so here's the deal," I said casually. "You take Fang, and leave with no fighting. No one gets hurt. Or... you charge at me and see what happens. I'm not kidding when I saw that it's going to make training in the School seem easy. You earn your School street cred, and -"

"And you're okay with giving up your Flock member just like that?" Ari asked, sneering. "Some loyalty."

" _You_ should talk," I countered. "You're the one who defected from your Flock by turning into an Eraser."

Ari sneered. "I was never part of the Flock. You never included me. You always ignored me because I didn't have wings like you all."

"Uh, well, your _father_ imprisoned us in cages for most of our formative years, so excuse me for not playing Go-Fish with you like you wanted to do. Why didn't you go to regular school, anyway? You could've had regular friends, and you wouldn't even be here right now."

Ari went pink and mumbled something about _too long of a commute for my dad_. I shook my head in resignation.

"Well, what's in the deal for you?" Ari asked me tightly, and I shrugged.

"Ari, Ari, Ari. You're just going to have to figure that out on your own." I turned to Jefferson. "He's not very funny anymore, is he?" Jefferson shook his head, and I sighed. "What a shame."

"Enough dawdling!" Ari snapped. "Hand over Fang."

Fair enough.

"Fang," I said casually, turning to him. "Ready to go?"

"You better have a plan," Fang muttered in my ear as he passed me, and I manged to keep a passive face as he stalked over the mushed strawberry patch towards the Erasers. As I had expected, Ari motioned for the Erasers to leave, still shooting me furtive glances of confusion mingled with interest... and was that even a hint of fear? As for Fang, he stared at me, murder clearly written all over his dark obsidian eyes.

And then all hell broke loose.

* * *

 _"You really love him, don't you?" Dylan whispered, his ice-blue eyes filled with unshed years. Clutching my tiny baby bump, I nodded, tears streaming down my own face as I realized that Phoenix would grow up without a father, without a proper life, living underground in a wasteland._

 _Dylan's blue eyes looked resolute. "I can bring him back to you."_

 _I couldn't tear my eyes away from the sheet that had once been a living, breathing, animate, alive human being. But Dylan's words hit me like a sack of bricks. "You -you can?"_

* * *

"Max. _Max_. MAX!"

With a loud grunt, I jolted awake, head throbbing as though I'd been run over by a lawn mower. Above me stood a a very concerned looking Nudge, and she moved aside as I sat up, groping the wall for support. "What -where are the others?"

"Who's Dylan?" she asked me, worriedly.

"Dylan? Who's Dylan?" I asked innocently.

"That's what _I_ was just asking you," Nudge huffed. "You kept muttering something about Dylan, which is weird because I don't think we know anyone named that -"

"Where are the others?" I interrupted. "Iggy and Angel. Where are they?"

Nudge helped me stand up, and I leaned against her as blood rushed to my head. "Fang went to go find them. He said something about killing you, though. What was it, exactly? Oh yeah -he told me he was gonna kill you, bury you, dig you up, and then kill you again."

"Fang said all that?" I asked incredulously, grabbing onto the kitchen counter for support as the linoleum under my feet decided to try to get me to surf on it rather than stand. "Why am I so dizzy? What happened?"

Gazzy intervened. "Uh, well, you were about to sacrifice Fang to the big Eraser things, and then I threw a stun bomb at them like you told me to, and... erm... I accidentally got you, too."

All's fair in love and war. "Is Fang okay?"

"Yeah, he got out of the blast radius in time, but like we said, he wants to kill you for attempting to sacrifice him to the bad guys, so..."

"And you guys did exactly what I said? You loaded the Erasers into the helicopter and sent it flying?"

Gazzy rolled up his sleeve to reveal a large bruise. "Their skulls are _hard_ ," he complained. "And they were super heavy."

"Well, I would've helped, but you knocked me out, Gaz," I said to him seriously. "Anyways, that's besides the point. The point is, we're all safe, and no one got hurt, so no harm done, really -"

I was cut off by the sound of the front door opening, and I raced to open it, counting birdkid heads. I counted one, two, three, and collapsed in relief. Although that might have just been the aftereffects of the stun bomb.

Fang stalked into the kitchen, pulled out a can of spaghetti, and began eating, using the lid as a makeshift spoon. I looked at him. "Please don't hate me."

"You sacrificed me." he pointed out. "I get to hate you for a little while."

I grinned. "Touche."

Leaving him to enjoy his food, I turned to Iggy and Angel, the latter of whom was clutching a suspiciously familiar-looking teddy bear. "Where'd you guys end up going?" I asked them.

"Toy store," Iggy grunted. "We were flying around, thinking of where we could go that the Erasers wouldn't find us, and it was between that or a makeup place that smelled like complete... shizz. Anyways, Angel here somehow charmed the store lady to give her the bear for free."

I glanced at Angel. "Really?"

Angel turned pink. "Well... she was really nice! She probably would have given it to me anyway..."

"Yeah, Angel just 'convinced' her," Iggy said casually. "Whereas I actually had to use my _brains_ to sneak this out of the store." He pulled out another toy from the inside pocket of his windbreaker, and Gazzy immediately gasped.

"No way! You got _Beyblades_?!" Gazzy ran over to the blind boy and snatched the package out of his hands.

"Hey!" I said, glaring at Iggy. "That's shoplifting!"

"Well, Angel did it first," Iggy argued, and I shrugged.

"I never said I cared, I just said that it was shoplifting. But don't do it again. Unless we need to." Turning to Angel again, I fingered the pink tutu of the bear. "Well, what are you going to name your totally-shoplifted toy?"

"I have the perfect name!" Iggy interjected from the corner where Gazzy was eagerly ripping into his new toy. "Fang told me everything, and I can honestly say that we didn't miss anything at all. In honor of possibly the most anti-climactic fight ever, I propose we name the bear Letdown."

" _What_?!" I said, outraged. "That's a horrible name! Angel, I propose we name the bear Fangalicious."

Fang choked slightly on his spaghetti just as Angel brightened at my reasonable suggestion. "Okay, Max! Does this mean I can keep it?"

Damn those Bambi eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever. As long as you don't pick up something _else_ along the way -like a talking dog or something."

Angel smiled gratefully at me. "Thanks, Max!" She hugged Fangalicious tightly.

"Why didn't _I_ get anything?" Nudge demanded of Iggy, who shrugged.

"Hey -we're getting off topic!" I said, clapping my hands. "Now, on to some more serious things. I think you're all smart enough to understand that we can't stay here any longer, because the Erasers are going to be very mad once they wake up in a helicopter halfway back to the School. The first place they're going to look for us is here, obviously. So it's good that you guys don't have that much of an emotional attachment to this place. Grab all the food, if Fang didn't eat it all yet, grab any weapons you might need, and grab any Mickey Mouse alarm clocks that may or may not have sentimental value. We don't have that much time. Any questions?"

Nudge, surprisingly, raised her hand instead of blurting her thoughts out loud, although I supposed it was just because she was mad at Iggy for not getting her anything illegally. "Yeah, um... does this mean we're going to be chased by Erasers for the rest of our lives?"

"Oh, that shouldn't be that much of a problem. We're going straight to the nearest gun vendor and getting ourselves each a piece. If we have those, we won't have to get that close to the Erasers, because it's obvious that they have the advantage when it comes to physical power. No matter how ripped you think you are from doing push ups every night," I added to Fang. "I can hear the grunting -the walls aren't that thin."

He didn't color; he just smirked. "You're welcome."

"Besides, I left a note on the dashboard of the helicopter that I think will shed a lot of light on the matter for Ari," I glanced at the Gasman. "You _did_ stick the note to the dashboard, right?"

"Right after I farted on it," Gazzy proclaimed proudly.

"Right, then, that's settled. Any more questions?"

Fang had finished eating his food and had set the empty can on the counter. "Yeah. Uh, how exactly did you know that Ari was seeking emotional revenge on us?"

I shrugged. "Oh, that? I have a Voice in my head that tells me what to do at all times."

Fang snorted. "So you're schizo now?"

"No. I just happen to have a Voice in my head that tells me what's going to happen before it does," I explained. Of course, I had no idea if the Voice was going to show up in this timeline or not, but would be good to set up a precedent for when -or if -it did. "So that's why I knew that. Also... isn't it obvious? Ari felt neglected because his _biological father_ left him-a nice, normal kid, to raise us. You'd have to be incredibly thick to miss that. I honestly feel bad for the guy." Of course, Jeb was also _my_ biological father... something Ari was going to find out quite soon. Oh, that reminded me -I was going to have to work in a visit to Dr. M and Ella quite soon. Maybe we'd fly over them like last time.

Fang shook his head. "I swear, it's like you're a completely different person or something."

"Or something," I said. "Now get your stuff and let's go. We've got some gun handling permits to forge."

 _"You're my favorite, buttercup_!"

"Oh my gosh, Fangalicious makes noises!" Angel squealed. I groaned. Guess what I'd have to listen to constantly from now on.

" _I love you, too_!"

* * *

 _Oh, don't worry. There will be action. But it just didn't make sense to Max to have that particular fight when it could have been so easily avoided. Other fights will not be so easily avoided._

 _Barring Fangalicious, the demon bear from hell, what did you think?_


	3. Fang the Supergirl

_UPDATE: I didn't actually put up the entire chapter... terrible copy-n-paste skills. Anyways, here's the full chapter._

* * *

 _Happy 2016! Hopefully this year'll be the year I figure out what I'm doing with my life... Anyways, one of my new years' resolutions was to finish everything I've started on here, which might be kind of hard for me because I haven't gotten past the third chapter on any of my stories. Third chapter curse, maybe? I don't know... but hopefully I'll be able to post the fourth chapter for this story real soon. Then we'll see about a curse._

 _Also, sorry in advance for all the Star Wars references. I've seen the new movie three times in the theater, and one of those times was earlier today. They should be easy enough to ignore, if you don't want to read them._

* * *

Flying while carrying a rather backpack that weighs roughly as much as a regular-sized six-year-old is not an easy job, let me tell you.

It turned out that Nudge's definition of 'things with sentimental value' was her entire closet. And while that wasn't very large by itself, I was also carrying my Mickey Mouse alarm clock, Iggy's collection of wires and plugs, and a multitude of Gazzy's bombs. At least I wasn't being forced to carry Fang's dumbbells, because there was a line, people, and it was very close to being crossed.

Why was I the one relegated to carrying things, you ask? Good question, but I was thinking it had something to do with my impromptu decision to leave the house and the subsequent _the crazy person gets to carry the bags_ conclusion. I was just lucky that they all decided to go with my ominous pronouncement and followed me out of the house in the first place. A few extra pounds of weight was nothing.

Except it was breaking my back. I was finna drop this crap the first moment I could, but that moment was not presenting itself any time soon.

As I shifted the backpack on my shoulders, Fang swooped over next to me. "Hey," he said, and I was so surprised that he actually initiated a conversation that I dropped fifteen feet and soared back up.

"What?" I asked him. He ducked to avoid a slipstream -occupational hazard of flying at about 15,000 feet - and his hair blew out of his face so I could actually see it in its entirety for once. His dark eyes narrowed at me.

"Are you ever going to tell me what really happened?" His voice was so quiet I could have pretended not to hear it over the wind rushing through my ears and whipping my hair into my face. Damn, I was going to have to cut it again.

I sighed and shifted the backpack on my shoulders some more to avoid talking. "I told you already."

Fang snorted. "Am I supposed to believe you have a _voice_ in your head that tells you what to do?"

"You didn't believe Angel could read minds at first, could you?" I shot back. Indeed, it had taken Fang the longest to believe that Angel could in fact read peoples' thoughts, and it had taken a rather embarrassing experiment involving Angel broadcasting his thoughts as he read a _Playboy_ magazine that Jeb had accidentally left in plain sight out loud to the rest of us.

Fang flushed slightly, and I could tell he remembered his eleven-year-old's unorthodox thoughts about Adriana Lima just as clearly as I could. "Fine. But I'll need proof... and not in the way you're thinking."

I grinned. "All in good time."

I looked down and felt exhilarated as I saw tiny blue lines representing rivers, even tinier gray ones representing roads, and if I squinted, I could almost kid myself that those tiny specks were people, going about their daily lives, completely unaware that there were flying _bird kids_ above them at this very moment...

And then I put the brakes so hard that Gazzy, who I had instructed to fly last so that we would all be out in the way of his own smelly slipstream, collided into me at about eighty miles an hour. The backpack on my back shifted, and I spun off course, thrown off by the weight. When I had righted myself, panting, I looked over at Gazzy, who had fallen about a hundred feet from the impact and now was regaining elevation. "Sorry," I yelled to Gazzy, and he shrugged but kept his distance from Max the Crazy Freak.

"Premonition from the Voice?" Fang asked me, smirking, and why not play to his fancies?

"Yeah," I said, looking down. "It says there're ski cabins down there. Abandoned. Lots of food."

"Food?" Nudge said, her stomach rumbling. "Where food?"

Fang cottoned on quickly enough. "Ski season's not exactly burgeoning in the summer."

I thought for a moment before I spoke. This time, we weren't in immediate danger from anyone, and there wasn't anyone that we had to go rescue right away. So far, I was doing pretty good, so why not reward myself with another trip to the ski cabin? If I remembered correctly, there _was_ lots of food, and I also would have time to explain to Fang that I wasn't going insane.

Besides, we would have to stall in that cabin for a while if I wanted to fly over Ella at the exact time the bullies accosted her. I had a plan, but I would have to get there at the right time to carry it out.

"Let's go," I decided, and the others followed me in a perfect V- me at the head, of course.

I folded my wings in and dropped down a few hundred feet away from the cabin, suddenly apprehensive. Now that all six of us were here, there was a greater chance of us getting caught. I was fairly certain that nothing was going to happen, because nothing had happened last time we were here... except we had overslept and caused Angel another day of pain in the School.

I instinctively moved closer to Angel, to help her in through the ripped screen window that Iggy had just torn apart with his long man-fingernails. For some reason, I was getting the feeling that she couldn't read my mind. Because if she could, she would have definitely said something once my treacherous, Fang-centric thoughts entered her mind during breakfast. Either that or she wasn't telling the others for some reason. I was confused and wary, and I wasn't sure I wanted to find the answer out.

My ruminations were interrupted by Nudge's squeal. "Oh yeah, pay dirt!"

Gazzy poked his head out through the window. He was clutching an already half-empty bottle of Coke and looked extremely pleased with himself. "You coming in, Max?"

"Huh? Oh yeah..." I climbed in through the window and found quite a scene in the dusty little kitchen. Nudge and Angel were stacking cans and cans of food on the countertops, Fang had pulled out a pack of Cheetos, and Gazzy was yelling "Chug! Chug! Chug!" as Iggy downed an entire bottle of Sprite in one go.

I rolled my eyes. Suddenly I had never felt more exhausted. We had just flown for about six hours, after all, and the feeling of deja-vu right now was so overwhelming that I just _had_ to get out of here and close my eyes... if only for a moment...

I sprinted outside, ignoring everything else, and collapsed under a pine tree in the forest just as my head panged painfully.

* * *

 _"Save him! Just save him, please!"_

 _"Max..."_

 _"I need him! I need him, Dylan!"_

 _"Why?"_

 _"Because I'm pregnant!" I screamed, tears coursing down my face, clutching the tiny bump on my abdomen that would grow up to become a child without a father, a child growing up in a lost, destroyed world..._

* * *

"Max?"

I jerked awake with a groan to find someone standing over me. "Angel?"

She sat down next to me, clutching Fangalicious in her arms. After six hours of flying, the bear looked considerably worse for wear. "I brought you this." And she pressed a can of pineapple into my hands.

"Thanks," I said quietly. Was this where she was going to tell me that she had known from the beginning that something was amiss, that I wasn't acting like I should have, that she suspected me of being a clone from the School? Try as I might, I couldn't stop my thoughts from traveling back to that same underground room, to that same white sheet...

"Do you think it's going to be okay?" Angel asked, and I jumped slightly.

"Our lives? Hopefully. Probably. That's why I'm here, right? To make sure none of us die, or get kidnapped... or... or..." I fiddled with the can absently.

"I get it," Angel said, and I grinned. Too morbid? Well, I had just had a weird dream-nightmare-vision-thing about Fang's _death_ , so by my standards, it was pretty fine. "But Max, what're we going to do? Where're we going to go?"

I faltered for a moment. I hadn't really had a moment to plan out every moment of our futures, thanks to the Eraser attack and then us going on the run. And I realized, for the first time in my life, I was aimless. Without objective. My determination to keep Angel and everyone else out of the School's hands had left us with no goal, no one to rescue, no one to chase after. But I knew we were going to have to do something...

 _Ella_.

I grinned to myself. How was I supposed to explain that one to the others?

* * *

I timed it perfectly.

We were soaring over the exact spot where the goons were accosting Ella right as it happened, and I knew what I had to do.

"Guys," I said, gesturing downwards. "Keep flying straight. I'm going down there to help." I pointed to where the boys had gathered around Ella.

"No," Fang said, and I rolled my eyes.

"Since when do I listen to you?" I asked him tetchily, and he scowled at me. "Trust me. I know what you're thinking; that I'm going to get shot in the shoulder and disappear for three days. That's not happening."

"What _is_ happening?" Nudge asked, confused.

"Max wants to be Supergirl, defender of the weak," Fang said, rolling his eyes.

Iggy frowned. "Comics? Where?"

"Keep going straight," I said, knowing every second I wasted up here was another second those guys had to hurt my sister. "I'll catch up in less than an hour. Promise."

I didn't get why Fang was so unhappy about this. It's not like we had an agenda this time.

And so, ignoring Fang's warnings of death and dismemberment if I went down there, I went down there. I landed as quietly as possible behind the warehouse, around the corner from where the wannabe thugs were harassing my sister. Just knowing that they had the intention of hurting someone who was related to me by blood made the same stuff pound in my ears. But I couldn't beat them up like last time; not unless I wanted to get shot. Diplomatic relations, once again, was the way to go.

Of course, if that failed, I would whoop their asses without hesitation.

A few of my feathers, ruffled from the heavy wind, bent the wrong way as I folded my wings in, and I winced. Bad hair day? I was having a bad wing day.

I rounded the corner of the warehouse just as Big-and-Ugly Number One was saying, "I told you not to tell anybody about my little situation with Ortiz." Again, I wondered whether my sister was in a drug deal or something foreboding. What if they came for her later? "It was none of your business. I had to teach him a lesson." And he flexed his muscles. Oooh, scary. He kind of reminded me of Jabba the Hutt -vast, disgusting, and menacing.

I was proud of Ella for not backing down. "By beating him up? He looks like he got hit by a car. And he didn't do anything to you."

Big-and-Ugly just smirked. "He exists. He breathes my air, you know what I mean?"

When should I intervene? Now? Later?

Now?

"So, Ella, what have you got to say for yourself?" Big-and-Ugly sneered, looking menacing as all heck. "Is there any reason why I shouldn't teach you a lesson, too?"

He had cocked his gun and was casually spinning it around in his fingers. Okay, now it is.

"Three guys against one girl. That seems about right." I said loudly, striding out from behind the old warehouse. Ominous.

Big-and-Ugly flushed red. "None of your business," he muttered, and I smiled.

"I think it _is_ my business. You guys gave Ortiz what was coming to him, right?"

They looked surprised. "How'd you know that?" Big-and-Ugly asked after a pause. "Did Michelin send you?" The gun in the crook of his arm was now casually pointed at me -it was a clear warning.

I snorted. "Michelin? You think I operate under the orders of some pimped-out druggie who sits with his feet up all day?"

The three boys and even Ella looked astonished, like they couldn't believe a girl would dare to talk about their beloved Michelin, whoever the hell he was, that way. "You can't say that about him." The guy next to Big-and-Ugly, who looked like he had constipation, the way his face was screwed up, spoke up.

"Well, I don't take orders from Michelin, or anyone else," I snapped. "And if he didn't like what you did to Ortiz, then you can bet your asses that I'm not pleased, either." I had no idea what I was saying, but it seemed to be working. The boys were becoming increasingly wary.

Constipated-Ugly looked at me. "It was all Chazz's idea!" Great idea, throwing your friend under the bus. Instantly I began to despise him.

Big-and-Ugly, who was ostensibly named Chazz, looked irritated and angry that his comrades were getting so freaked out by a _chick_. He looked at me with an appraising eye. "If Michelin didn't send you, who did? You couldn't have sent yourself, you're just a -"

"Girl? Well, that didn't stop Ella here from ruining your operation, did it?"

"Ella? You know her?" Chazz pointed to Ella, who was watching this conversation with increasing incredulity, and I willed Ella to keep her head.

"Of course I know her," Ella said loudly. "She's the... person who I was warning you about. The girl who's going to kick your asses."

I walked over to Ella. "Here's the deal," I said. "You let Ella go with a warning this time, and I _won't_ go all ape-shit on you. But if you try to make a move on her, I _will_ kick your asses into next Tuesday. Don't believe me?" I turned around and punched a hole, straight through the wall of the warehouse. I was lucky -the withered wood had become almost soft with age, but the boys all took a step backwards in shock.

"Shit," Chazz whispered. "She's not joking."

"Joking? I never joke. And if you were half as close to Michelin as I am, you'd know that he doesn't associate with people that joke around." I snarled. "Now get the hell out of here before I decide to take matters into my own hands."

They didn't need telling twice. They backed away slowly, and when I pretended to chase them, they began running away as fast as they could.

I grinned at my handiwork before realizing that Ella was still standing there, and I turned around.

"Who are you?" she said, her voice shaking. A stroke of inspiration came to mind.

"I'm Fang," I said, sticking my hand out.

"Fang," she repeated, a hint of a grin on her face. "I get it. You don't want to tell me your name. It's cool, I just wanted to properly thank the girl who might've just saved my life..."

" _You_ did most of that," I grinned. "And think of it as my superhero name."

Ella smiled. "Fang, the superhero who defends people by lying her face off. Pretty anticlimactic, if you ask me."

What _is_ it with people not being pleased by my desire to avoid bloodshed? First Iggy, now Ella? "I'm sorry that I didn't want to have three guys' hospital bills on my conscience," I said, and Ella grinned.

"Well, it _was_ pretty super, the way you defended me from those guys."

"No problem. Who were they, anyway?"

Ella sighed and tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. "Bullies. Occupational hazard of being the only Latina girl in a crappy public school. They were ragging on some kid, and I intervened, and then they targeted me."

"I hate bullies," I said, sounding almost sycophantic. It was taking a lot of my willpower to avoid blurting out something strange in a _Leia, you're my sister_ kind of way. The Force clearly wasn't strong with my family, because I was the only mutant freak.

"What would you have done if they hadn't backed off?" Ella wanted to know.

"Something very strange."

"Would it involve using superhero powers?"

"Of a sort," I glanced at the sky, where my Flock was waiting for me. "But I can't tell you what they are."

Ella glanced at me. "Why?"

"You wouldn't believe me." I said simply.

Ella grinned, but she also looked confused, almost defiant. "Why?" she repeated, and I realized that maybe unwarranted curiosity and an inability to follow orders ran in the family. So I decided to tell her the truth.

"I would've busted out my wings and kicked those guys' asses with my super strength," I said.

It's actually quite a strange phenomenon when the truth is so outrageous that it sounds like a blatant lie. Ella clearly had some sort of internal struggle going on, but she ultimately decided not to contest. "Well, thanks anyways," she said finally, kicking a rock with her foot.

"I think you should get out of here before your goons realize they've been played by a _girl_ ," I said, and she grinned again.

"Good idea."

"You'll be okay?"

Ella nodded, looking almost unconsciously towards the woods where her house was located. "I'll be fine. Thanks, Fang."

I grinned. _Fang was so going to kill me later_. "No problem," I repeated.

I watched her go, feeling slightly proud of myself. Ella was going to run home and tell her mom first thing about everything that had happened, down to the part of me saying I would bust out my wings. If I had learned anything about my sister in my years of knowing her, it was that she thrived on gossip. When I had ended up at the Martinez's home last time, she had told me _everything_ about everyone in her grade, including who she planned to go to the Spring Fling with. So it was natural that she'd tell her mom all about me, which is exactly what I wanted.

I snapped out my wings and soared upwards, already feeling more hopeful as I spotted Ella walking home through the trees.

Maybe things would turn out better this time.

* * *

 _As far as chapters go, this one is mostly filler. It might not be immediately obvious why the Flock went to the ski cabin again, but it had to happen as a set up for the future. Because obviously, Things are going to start catching up to Max pretty soon. I know some parts of this chapter make it seem like she's completely fine; like she's got everything under control, but this is MAX. When does she ever have ANYTHING under control?_

 _Also, because I can do things like this, Ella is thirteen in this, not twelve. This will matter later._

 _Review!_


	4. Eraser BO

I flew up, pumping my wings fast, wanting to get above the cloud cover before anyone saw me and became convinced that aliens were taking over the world. And if word got out that flying bird kids existed... Well, it would be the curtain call for us.

The Flock was waiting at the northernmost point of Lake Mead, where I had told them to wait. I felt a flutter of apprehension as I saw their silhouettes in the distance. I was going to have to explain things sooner or later. They were not wont to follow me around like little blind hatchlings forever. Especially not Fang, who I knew would develop a leadership complex over time if I didn't make him feel like he was a contributing, leading member of the Flock.

If I didn't want Fang to leave, and obviously I didn't, because I knew that nothing good would come out of that, then I was going to have to come clean to him at some point. Or at least make up a more believable lie than the Voice. Because so far, the Voice was a lie. It hadn't shown up yet. And I didn't think it ever would. In the last timeline, Angel was the Voice, and that still didn't make sense to me. So if the Voice ever showed up, which wasn't possible because Angel couldn't read my mind for some odd reason, then I would have yet another investigation on my plate.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I nearly collided with the rock face on Lake Mead at top speed, but I swooped upwards at the last second and landed rather shakily near the rocks on which the Flock was sitting. Nudge was the first to speak up, obviously.

"That was fast," she said, looking rather surprised. What, no hug? No, _'_ _I'm glad to see you_?'

I flicked my stupid long hair behind my shoulders. I would have to get it cut again. Maybe dye it red or something. Fang liked redheads. "I told you I'd only be an hour, max."

Fang spoke up. "We were watching the eagles." He gestured to the large bald eagles soaring in the air a few hundred feet away. For the first time, I appreciated how majestic they really were. Fang nodded as though he could read my thoughts. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. All good. I just totally helped a girl kick a few boys' asses _without_ beating them up, thanks very much." I said smugly, and I proceeded to relate the tale to them -leaving out the Super Fang part of course. Fang didn't need to find out about that just yet. Their faces grew more and more incredulous, and Iggy snorted as I finished.

"Really? Why couldn't you just bust out the ol' fists and give them the one-two?" Iggy said, and I shook my head, smiling. Iggy and Ella were really quite similar; how had I never noticed before? Well, there _was_ one glaring difference in that Iggy was a mutant freak and Ella was a perfectly normal girl (besides the fact that she had a mutant for a half-sister, but everyone in the world probably had _some_ weird relatives, so it wasn't that unusual), but I had had enough experience in my life to know that love was blind. And illogical.

"Where to now, Max?" Gazzy asked. I had kept an eye on Fang, whose shoulders tensed just a fraction of a millimeter as he asked the question.

"Why don't you decide, Fang?" I asked him, and his shoulders relaxed that same fraction of a millimeter.

He spoke in his quiet, deliberate voice. "Cafe. Recuperate and make a plan. Also, the Erasers won't look for us there."

"Right," I nodded fervently. "Because we'll be hiding in plain sight."

I saw a flicker of a smile pass across Fang's face and I grinned. We were still on the same page. That, at least, hadn't changed.

Being diplomatic was honestly _really hard_.

"I saw an IHOP on the way over here," Nudge chirped up, clearly wanting to get in on this meaningful-glance-thing Fang and I had cultivated. "We could go there or something. But what about money?"

"We'll worry about that later," I said dismissively. "Who's up for pancakes?"

* * *

We touched down in the forest, a good half mile away from the charming little town of Somewhere, Arizona. Or maybe not Arizona. We weren't anywhere close to the School, so I actually had no idea where we were. I made a mental note to pick up a tourist map or something once we reached man-made land.

Still, if _we_ didn't even know where we were, then how were the _Erasers_ supposed to know? The thought cheered me up some, and I led the way out of the woods, only tripping on branches a couple times. The second time, I caught Fang smirking, and I had to turn away to hide my blush. Something was seriously wrong with me.

I spotted the IHOP Nudge was talking about, and after quickly scanning the restaurant, parking lot, and accompanying strip mall that seemed to always exist in the background of retail areas like these, I detected no threat and led the way into the restaurant. The waitress, who could only be a couple of years older than me, smiled tightly at us even as her eyes silently bugged out at our windswept appearances. Well, that's what you get for flying at speeds only race cars could hope to move at. "Table for six," I said, pleasantly enough, and she nodded, blowing a bubble from her gum as she led us to a corner booth.

I took a seat facing the door, just because I wanted to be the first one to know of any imminent threat. Nudge and Angel squished in next to me, while the boys took the seat across from us. I also smiled warmly as the same waitress walked up to us warily, and I said, "Can we just get one of everything that has meat in it?"

She smirked. "Uh, we have over fifty items on our menu."

My eyes narrowed. Yeah, okay, it probably seemed strange that a bunch of disheveled kids would just walk into a breakfast eatery and order a crap ton of food, but I was _not_ in the mood to be discriminated against. Especially not when saving the world meant saving these kinds of people as well.

Damn, that was a dark thought.

"I know. We've all just come back from training. The kids are running half-marathons, and the rest of us are preparing for a full marathon. Today's our cheat day, and we thought we'd come and celebrate how far we've come by eating at our favorite breakfast place, but if you don't want to serve us, then I guess we'll just leave. _And_ leave a crappy review in the guest book," I announced, with the air of a normal person who didn't have wings and wasn't a mutant.

The waitress scowled at me and walked off to relay our order. Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel started chattering away about how cool it was to be in an actual _restaurant_ , ordering _actual_ food... It was hard not to smile at them. I had forgotten that they were still kids, still innocent... Last I remembered, Nudge had had half her face peeled off in a horrible accident, Iggy was already starting to get gray hairs, and Angel had the hollowed cheeks of someone who had seen way too much blood and gore for a lifetime.

I winced at the thought. But hopefully it wouldn't end up like that this time.

I was so lost in my thoughts (happened quite often) that I didn't notice as Fang leaned across the table. His quiet, deep voice was almost drowned out by the others' excited ones. "How exactly are we paying for this?"

After a pause, I managed to extricate a small square of leather stuffed with wads of green paper from my pocket. Fang's eyelids widened a fraction of an inch, a sign that he was completely belaguered, and the others turned to stare at my small fortune.

"Where'd you get _that_?!" Nudge gasped, and I shoved the wallet away before she yelled loud enough for the police to come catch us.

"Picked it out of one of the bullies' pockets," I answered, feeling the flock's judging eyes upon mine. "But they deserved it -they had already beaten up one guy and were threatening to beat up Ella and me with no remorse. They could stand to lose a few hundred bucks." My eyes met Fang's. "Right?"

He moved his shoulders slightly, which I took to mean yes. Good thing we all had rather flexible morals. "Cash only?" I knew he was thinking about the trail a credit card would leave. Smart, that one was.

"Of course."

"How _much_ cash are we talking about?" Gazzy interjected in a not-so-quiet whisper, and I knew he was having visions of buying his own island. Before I could answer that question, our lovely waitress came up to us with plates and plates of _oh so much food_.

As the others began inhaling their food, I kept my eyes trained on the door. I couldn't help feeling tensed. Fang watched me with his dark eyes, and when I moved my hand towards the sausage plate he brushed it briefly with his own. I looked at him.

"What's the plan?" Fang asked me quietly, and I sighed, grabbing about four sausages.

"Have you ever thought about starting a blog?"

Fang cocked his head ever so slightly to the left. "Yeah."

I dropped my fork in surprise. "You have?"

Fang shrugged. "Seems like the kind of thing chicks would dig."

My mouth formed a perfect O before I realized he was making fun of me. In his own, Fangalicious way. "You... you're not funny." I stated, and he shrugged, although I saw a flicker of a smirk flit across his face.

"No offense, Fang, but I'm changing my bear's name," Angel's voice floated across the table through a mouthful of pancake. "I think Celeste has a much better ring to it. Nudge suggested the name just now."

"Like Celeste Holm, the famous Academy Award winner!" Nudge exclaimed, her brown eyes sparkling. "I have a poster of her in my old room... well, I _had_ one..."

"I'll buy you another one," I said. "But it's going to have to be smaller. Like a bumper sticker or something."

"Are they gonna blow up our house?" Gazzy asked me, and I sighed.

"Can't say for sure," I said. "But we probably shouldn't go back there for a very long time. If ever."

Gazzy fell silent, as did everyone else. I spoke up.

"Guys. It's just _stuff._ We can replace anything you left behind. What we _can't_ replace is each other. I hope you understand that."

"Max is right," A horribly familiar deep voice came from the booth behind me, and I closed my eyes slowly. God, no. I was eating _breakfast_. Like a _person_. Why did this have to happen now? "Too bad you're all irreplaceable, because I guess a _Sorry for your loss_ card just won't cut it."

"Hey, Nudge," I said loudly, loud enough for everyone in the next two booths over to hear us. "I think I left my purse in the bathroom, mind checking for me? Take Angel with you -it might be a two-person job."

Nudge looked at me, stricken, but luckily she grabbed Angel by the hand and walked fast towards the girls' bathroom without questioning me. I then turned to Fang, who shook his head almost imperceptibly before I even had a chance to open my mouth.

"Fang, why don't you, Gazzy, and Iggy go check on the engine? I'm pretty sure our old Fiat isn't going to make it in this sweltering heat." I shrugged apologetically, and he stared at me, nostrils flaring, face white. I gave him a tiny prod underneath the seat with my foot. "Go," I said pointedly. "Mom's going to kill us if we ruin her car. I mean, it's already a rust bucket, but she loves that thing more than she loves her wedding ring."

A woman in the booth behind Fang laughed out loud at that. Huh. Good to know I had a potential career as a comedian. "Don't forget to use coolant," I said, deliberately avoiding Fang's gaze.

Finally, he motioned for Gazzy to follow him and allowed Iggy to brush the sleeve of his shirt with his fingertips. I waited until the little bell rang and the door stopped swinging, my pulse ringing in my ears, to turn around and say hello to my half-brother. He wasn't alone. Two other Erasers were sitting in the bench across from him. I recognized the one chowing down on a huge stack of waffles from the "fight" in front of our old house... His name was Jefferson. The other one was nursing a coffee, and I didn't recognize him.

"How did you find me?" I directed my words towards Ari, who was sitting in the bench directly behind mine, so I had to do a complete one-eighty just to see the side of his head.

Ari grinned, baring a mouth full of jagged, pointy teeth. "I can sniff bird-kids out like a rat can smell cheese. You're not the only one with enhanced senses, you know. And why don't you come join the party? We've got plenty of food..."

I scowled. "Thanks, but coming from you, that invitation is basically a death threat."

"Aww, come on, Maxie. We're still friends, aren't we? Even though you jilted me on a deal and sent me on a wild goose chase halfway across California. I'm a pretty forgiving guy. And I've forgiven you."

 _Your nose is growing_ , I thought, but outwardly I shrugged. "Fine. Call off Jefferson, and I'm sorry, I never got your name." I nodded to the third Eraser, the quiet one with dark hair.

"Orion," he mumbled, and I nodded to Ari.

"There you go. Call off Jefferson and Orion, and we'll have a nice, friendly chat. One-on-one."

Ari exhaled, and for a moment I thought he was going to whip out his claws and gut me, but then he just said, "You heard her. Get out of here. Wait for me."

Orion nodded readily and dropped his mug, but Jefferson continued shoveling down waffles and gave Ari a dirty look. "Gimme a mo'."

Ari leaned towards the other Eraser, flexing his claws threateningly. "I'm in charge, and I said _now_."

I watched, open-mouthed, kind of wishing there would be an Eraser fight, but then Jefferson gave Ari an even dirtier look, dropped his fork, and followed his companion out of the restaurant. I only hoped Fang had kept his head and had led the Flock to a safe spot.

I felt in my back pocket for what I needed, and then I got up and sat down in the seat across from Ari. I wrinkled my nose at the stench. "Smells like Eraser B.O. here."

"Max," Ari said, gritting his teeth. "Always trying to be the funny one."

"Ari," I said, in a voice barely above a whisper. "You won't try anything here."

He bared his teeth at me. "And why not?"

I felt like wringing his neck. "Didn't you read the note?"

Ari snorted. "That pile of bullshit?"

I blinked, surprised. "You know cuss words?"

He fiddled with the clasp of his leather jacket. " _You_ try growing up in a hostile environment and not picking up a few choice words or two."

"I _have_ grown up in the School." I said plaintively. "Where d'you think I learned to be smart-alecky and not follow rules?" I twisted the paper wrapper of the straw tightly around my pinky finger, and both Ari and I watched as it turned slowly turned purple.

"I wasn't talking about the School..." he mumbled, and I stared at Ari, freshly interested.

"Damn, Ari. Looks like our dad messed you up pretty bad. I'll say this for him- he has no idea how to raise a child. So I have no idea why he decided to have _two_." I sipped my drink and smiled inwardly at Ari's squirming.

"You're not my sister," he managed to say, after a very long pause full of inner turmoil. "I... I would've known."

" _Half-_ sister, dear brother."

I saw Ari's hand twitch, and I shook my head. "Nah, bro. I've got a gun pointed at you under the table. If you even try to make a move on me or my Flock, you won't be able to piss properly for the next three months."

Ari's eyes widened and he made to look under the table but I cocked Jeb's old Glock and raised my eyebrows. "You move a muscle and I shoot you in the head."

Ari leered at me. "If we _are_ siblings, as you say... Then you wouldn't dare shoot me."

"Okay, I want to get this on the record right now," I said, adjusting my hold on the Glock. "I know myself pretty well by now, and I can freely tell you that I am not the most moral person you'll meet. Sure, I'm supposed to save the world because I'm the supposed leader of the mutant movement or whatever, but that doesn't make me fucking Mother Teresa. Will I dive into a burning building to save a bunch of mutant kids? Yeah. No problem. Will I sock the lights out of a particularly mouthy Eraser without blinking? Also no problem. And so, we can conclude that I will not hesitate to shoot you in the..." I moved the gun around, trying to find a suitable spot. "I'll shoot you in the dick. I'm not killing you, am I? Just teaching you a lesson. And you can bet your... well, whatever you want, really, that I'll do _anything_ it takes to protect my Flock."

I finished my impressive monologue, willing to bet all the money in my back pocket that Ari didn't understand a word I had just said. He stared at me for a moment, through that strange, sadly disfigured face, and I found myself wishing slightly that I had somehow ended up in a time before Ari had been Eraser-ified. He was a sweet kid, and he didn't deserve this life.

But all that being said, he was the predator, and I was the prey. And prey will do anything to defend itself.

I acted a split second after he did. As he lunged across the table to slice my throat open with his large claws, I pulled the trigger.

" _My leg_!" Ari roared in pain. Damn, I couldn't aim well, could I? Oh, well. Time to get the hell out of here.

I practically leaped over the waitress who was bringing us even more food, stopping only to grab another plate of chain-link sausages. "Uh, do you have this to go?" I asked her, and she just stared at me, mouth open like a fish out of water.. I shrugged. "Okay, I'll just take the plate, then. Put it on my tab!"

I shot out of the IHOP at top speed, not knowing where I was going. I used this time to rationalize what I had done. Mildly injuring someone in the leg was nothing in the grand scheme of things. Nothing compared to how often Ari had tried to kill the Flock, specifically Fang. But still. I had shot my own brother. My own, feral, half-wolf brother.

 _Am I in the clear?_ I couldn't help ask myself. Or was karmic retribution going to come back and bite me in the leg?

 _You tell me, Max_.

I stopped in my tracks and nearly fell over in shock.

The Voice.

It was back.

* * *

 _Ari still can't read. That hasn't changed from the last timeline, but that's not something he'd admit to Max. Most likely another Eraser read the note out loud to him. And Max probably forgot that he couldn't read because she can't be expected to remember every single detail. She's human, like me. For example. I alternate between about four shirts, and I can't remember what I wore yesterday._

 _A side note, and something I'm apologizing for in advance: Gazzy, Iggy, and Nudge's names appear no more than seven times in this chapter. They just were not central to the action in this chapter. In fact, most of this story so far has just been Max coming to terms with her reincarnation (of sorts) and kind of shoving the Flock away, telling them that she can handle things by herself._

 _Next chapter, it's all going to come and bite her in the back. Because a Flock isn't a Flock without all of its members contributing equally, and Max is unfortunately going to realize that the hard way. New Max equals new challenges. She might think she's figured herself out... but has she really?_


	5. Chivalry's Dead

The Voice. _The Voice_. I leaned nonchalantly against a lamppost, under the guise of catching my breath. "You came early this time," I said quietly, and I swear to God that the Voice laughed.

 _Well, you were floundering out there._

"So you're... weird? Like me?" I wrung my hands and squinted into the distance. I had outrun Ari back at the IHOP, but I still couldn't be entirely sure where the Erasers were. And I couldn't hold off all three of them at the same time.

 _I'm a part of your mind, Max. Whatever happens to you, happens to me_.

"Oh. Right." I'd always been confused on that part, actually. You know, whether the Voice was an actual person or not. Because first it wasn't, and then it was Jeb, and then it was Angel... "Are you Angel?"

 _Not this time._

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" I growled. "Are you a person or not? Because if you were, it would make even _less_ sense than it did last time!"

 _That's exactly why I'm not going to tell you yet. You're not ready. And I'm not Angel. Or Jeb._

"Then I hope you're going to be more helpful this time," I said. "So riddle me this -why can't Angel read my mind?"

 _I'm guessing it's because you've got some sort of mental blockage that she can't penetrate. Besides, mind-reading was always a little far-fetched for science, don't you think?_

"Are you saying... are you saying she can't read my mind because I don't want her to? Well... I don't want Fang -or anyone -to die this time. I don't want Ella, or Dr. Martinez, or Ari, or all those Gen 77 kids, or the rest of the world to die because of me. Can you guarantee that?"

 _I can't predict the future, Max._

"Well, what _can_ you do?" I grumbled. "Give me some pointers, perhaps? A few tidbits of knowledge? And I already know about my strange family tree."

 _You started everything over for a reason. Why?_

"I've seen the future. And it sucks butt." I kept trying not to think about it, but my random hallucinations of Dylan's stricken face and Fang's lifeless body in the underground bunker were starting to get to me.

 _And what are you going to change?_

I opened my mouth to answer the Voice, but something in the distance caught my eye. A shadow. A lone silhouette, visible in the far distance. It was so far away that even with my raptor vision, I couldn't be a hundred percent certain about what I was seeing.

But sixty percent was good enough.

I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and kept running. Had to lead the Erasers away from the Flock.

* * *

Fang swore under his breath as his shoulder crashed into another thorny branch. He had heeded Max's unspoken advice and was burrowing the kids deep into the forest, where there was a lot of cover.

Problem was, it would also be impossible to do an up and away, if it ever came to that.

Fang had taken the lead, hacking his way through the bushes with an old kitchen knife he had hidden in his sock. But every once in a while, a branch would come out of nowhere and hit him in the head or shoulders. But he merely spit a leaf out of his mouth and kept going.

"Fang," Nudge was right behind him, her breath hot on his back. "Wait."

He continued hacking, ignoring her. But Nudge wasn't one to give up so easily, especially not when it came to talking.

"You can't leave Max behind."

Fang stopped hacking for a half-second. "She told us to go."

"But you can't just _leave_ her to fend for herself!"

Fang whirled around, catching Nudge off guard. She glared at him, her dark eyes a whirlwind of a angry and defiant, as he glowered at her and at the others who were trailing behind. "I'm doing what she told me to. Okay? Max knows what she's doing. She can take care of herself." _But she's bullheaded. And egoistic._ "It's my job to make sure we don't get turned into Eraser shreddle."

Nudge closed her mouth, still looking angry. "But-"

"Nudge," Iggy said from the back, from where he was clutching Gazzy's sweatshirt sleeve as if it was his lifeline. Despite Gazzy doing his best to guide the blind boy through the brambles of the forest, Iggy still had more twigs weaved into his strawberry blond hair than anyone else. "Drop it."

That shut Nudge up. Behind Max, Iggy was the one she listened to the most. She scowled and continued walking behind Fang's plowing.

* * *

I'd been leading the Erasers down a rabbit hole of a trail for a few hours at least, and the scorching Arizona(?) sun was beating down on my poor blonde head. I knew I couldn't keep running, checking back to make sure the shadows were following me every few minutes. I had to make a coherent plan.

This planning on the fly was kind of shit, to be honest.

I paused at a local bus stop, pretending to look at the map of the bus routes. The stop was pretty much empty, as it probably usually was at midday on a weekday. There was just another teenager with his headphones in so loud that I could hear the loud rock music overflowing out of his eardrums. I examined the map closely, ignoring the pounding drums of Slayer (Fang had gone through his emo-rocker phase) and found that I was currently in Reno, Nevada.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spied, with my raptor vision, a couple of familiar hulking shadows lurking a few hundred yards away.

"Hey," I said casually to Rocker Boy. He removed an earbud and gave me an appraising look.

"What?"

"When does the next bus arrive?"

He rolled his eyes. "Depends on where you want to go, obviously."

"I don't care."

He raised his eyebrows slightly. "You don't care?"

I crossed my arms defiantly. "Nope."

The kid then removed the other earbud and quite literally looked me up and down. He took in my scuffed Converse, my slightly disheveled clothes, and my rat's nest of hair. "You running away from home?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

Now he looked interested. "Cool."

"Listen kid, I really need to know when the next bus comes."

He motioned towards a run-down Greyhound that was coming up the street. "That should take you to Vegas."

"Thanks."

I kept an eye on the Erasers out of the corner of my eye. They were talking amongst themselves, not looking at me, and I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt up above my head and climbed onto the bus.

* * *

"You know, I think we could really survive in the forest. If we had to."

Nudge had her back against a particularly large tree and was chattering away to anyone who would listen, which was no one.

Fang and Gazzy had created a sort of makeshift barrier out of some old logs they had found, and the exertion had caused Gazzy to flop down on a soft patch of leaves and close his eyes. "I'm _so_ tired,..."

Iggy was sitting upright on a log, his ears cocked for any noises, and Angel was busy drawing pictures in the dirt with a stick. Fang finished putting the last log in place and wiped his hands on his dark jeans, where the dirt blended perfectly with years of older dirt. He flopped down next to Nudge, which was a mistake, because then she turned the Nudge Channel on him.

"Like, I mean, we have berries." She held up a red handful of what was mostly blackberry juice, courtesy of Iggy's acute scenting skills. "We can get water from, like, sucking moss and stuff. I saw it on that survival show, Man Meets Wild. And we could also stab some squirrels or somethin'... but I'd probably turn vegetarian if we had to live in the forest. Can't stand the thought of stabbing something to death." She shuddered.

Fang's lips quirked into a smile. "Yeah, imagine eating charred desert rat." He chuckled at Nudge's expression. "With burnt, crispy tails, crunchy bones, maybe even rabies-"

"Shut up!" Nudge squealed, throwing clods of dirt at him. "That's so gross!"

Fang grinned and then got a mouthful of dirt.

Angel got up from where she was drawing circles in the dirt and walked over to Fang, who looked up when he heard the sound of dry leaves being crunched underfoot. "Can I ask you something?" She clutched the arm of her increasingly dirty bear as he spat the last bits of mud out of his mouth and nodded.

"Do you really think Max will make it back okay?"

Fang froze for a half second. He glanced at Nudge, who was staring at him intently. Fang looked back at the ground, at an ant crawling up a small twig near his sneaker, before answering in his quiet deliberate voice, "Yeah."

Angel crossed her arms and frowned, and Fang knew she was trying to read his thoughts.

Fang was pretty damn certain that Max'd find her way back to the Flock. How the hell did Max carry herself with such poise? She seemed like she knew what she was doing at every single moment. Almost as if she knew the future.

He had barely been the leader for the past few hours, and already he was tired of all the responsibility. Fang glanced idly over to where Iggy and Gazzy were, not noticing the shadow that had been creeping up behind him.

In front of him, Angel's eyes widened. "Fang-

Nudge opened her mouth to scream but was cut off by the horribly familiar sound of an Eraser snarl. "Looks like breakfast: part two."

* * *

 _"You know, there's two of us."_

 _"Good job, Euler." I rolled my eyes to avoid giggling as his arms encircled my waist. If I stayed perfectly still, I could feel his heartbeat, slow and even against my skin._

 _"Only one hammock." His deep voice rolled over me like a soft wave._

 _I grinned. "I guess you aren't going to volunteer to sleep on the ground."_

 _I felt his crooked grin against my neck. "Chivalry's dead." He pressed his lips to my collarbone and I closed my eyes, breathing the oh-so-familiar scent of him in._

 _"I'm going to have_ so _many hickeys."_

 _"Forget hickeys," he growled, flipping me over expertly so that my head now dangled precariously from the edge of the hammock. It swayed gently as he moved, and I stared into his dark orbs of eyes, as his deft fingers slowly crept up my shirt. "They trusted us to save the world. We're grownups now."_

 _I let out a giggle. Couldn't help it. "When did you get so suave?"_

 _There was an almost feral glint in Fang's eye. "You have_ no _idea how long I've been waiting for this, Maximum Ride..."_

I jerked awake, gasping, running my hands all over my torso and sighing in relief (and maybe disappointment) when I realized that I was all alone.

But wait.

I was all alone.

The bus was completely deserted.

I stood up cautiously, looking around to see some sign of human life. I walked down the aisle to the driver's seat, which was also completely deserted. The bus itself was parked on the side of the road, along some stretch of abandoned highway that looked like it only ever saw traffic during the Second Coming.

I leapt catlike from the stairs of the Greyhound onto the cracked asphalt of the road, keeping my ears perked for any sign of anything. A rolled-up newspaper rolled across my foot as I shielded my eyes from the blazing heat of the sun and looked into the distance, where I could see a muggy shadow forming.

 _How long was I asleep?_

"Hello?" I called into the distance.

The next second something slammed into the back of my head. Stars flying all over my vision, I staggered, tripped over a small pothole in the road, and landed hard on my back. I turned around to find a furry first dangling in the air where my head used to be. Oh, shit.

"Hello, Max," Ari said, grinning. "Enjoy your nap?"

"How'd you find me?" I demanded, scrambling to my feet.

Ari just grinned, and my gaze moved slowly from his evil smirk to my left arm.

Shit. The tracker.

I swallowed a mouthful of bile. I wasn't going to throw up in front of Ari. "You must be pretty brave to face me off without your little Eraser friends. What were their names? Justin? Onion Ring?"

Ari leered at me. "Jackson and Orion are currently chasing after the other five members of your pitiful little Flock."

Oh, god. The bile was coming back up again. "Uh, what?"

He stepped forward and I automatically took a step back so that my back was now against the hot metal of the Greyhound. "I said, your Flock members are going to be clawed into cat food. Betcha didn't think of that when you conceived your amazing, genius plan."

"You're not going to kill them." I said loudly, trying to inch sideways.

He shrugged, and I saw his claws extend underneath his furry paws. "But we both know there are things much worse than death."

"Like what?" I asked boldly.

"I dunno... maybe like having to live your life all over again."

My eyes widened. "What the hell did you just say?"

Ari's lips parted to reveal a mouthful of jagged teeth that was beyond any orthodontist's help. "You think _you_ know everything?" He stepped forward again, and I caught a glimpse of his ankle underneath his School-issued cargo pants. Besides being attached to a size 15 foot and being and distinctly hairy, it was completely normal-looking.

Completely undamaged.

My brow furrowed. "Didn't I shoot -"

I didn't have time to get the words out before Ari gave an inhuman roar and pounced on all fours towards me, his sharp claws aiming straight for my neck.

* * *

 _Ending with a cliche'd cliffhanger there, sorry. Obviously Max isn't going to die, but the question still remains as to what the hell just happened._

 _Originally this chapter was well over 5,000 words and included some of Ella's POV too, but I shifted the story around a bit for coherency. I also truncated it, leaving some unnecessary crap out. I don't update regularly so when I do, I want to advance the plot as much as possible._

 _A quick note to_ Lootmagoot, _who thinks I'm James Patterson: I **wish**. Because even if the guy uses ghostwriters, he still managed to climb up the authorial ladder from being an unknown kid off the block to being one of the most famous authors of our time. You gotta give him respect for that._

 _Another note to all the silent people just viewing this story: Let me know what you think, and what it made you think about! Everything insignificant I wrote will have some significance later. Max's interaction with Rocker Boy? Wait 'till you find out who that is... Dammit, I keep spoiling things. But seriously, let me know what you think! Even if you think it sucks! Especially if you think it sucks!_


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